I can’t help but notice that both the Rhino and the N&R have taken a pass on the Guilford County Board of Education’s discussion of athletic eligibility in the wake of the Northern Guilford High School scandal. Perhaps they’re waiting until the board officially passes the policy during its Aug. 27 meeting following the 10-day public comment period.

I watched the discussion with interest on GCS-TV replay the other night. I realize I’m often hard on the board —- indeed I still struggled to stay awake during portions of the debate —- but I give props to Kris Cooke and Amos Quick for asking some hard questions about the policy, mainly about the proposed 365-day waiting period.

Here’s the proposed policy as written —–

The Board believes that students should not be allowed to transfer from school to school for the purpose of participating in athletics. To that end, students will be assigned a “base” school for the purposes of athletic participation. The “base” school will be the student’s school of assignment according to the student’s domicile or administrative
assignment as determined by GCS in their ninth grade year or whenever they first enter GCS schools in high school.

Students who attend schools other than their base schools after the beginning of ninth grade will have a 365-day waiting period from the date of enrollment at the non-base school before they are eligible to participate in interscholastic athletics. Base schools may change if the transfer is consistent with administrative procedures.

Students who enroll in a school other than their base school to take a course or set of courses not recognized as a program will have a waiting period of 365 days before they are eligible to participate in athletics at the new school.

The way I understand this is the policy writers sought to distinguish between students transferring from their base school to enroll in a program as opposed to taking a course that’s not available at their base school. But —- as Cooke points out — administration as to sign off on students transferring for course as well as a program. So what’s the distinction?

The policy also states that parents “parents and students are required to complete a residence verification form and provide at least two documents as proof of domicile” and “be able to show that they reside at the address full time and permanently.” Fair enough, but it’s clear —- as expressed by the attitude of one Northern Guilford mommy—– that if a parent wants their kid to go to another high school for athletics, then they’re going to find a way to ‘establish’ proof of domicile.

The thing is GCS appears to have pretty liberal transfer policy as it is, so I have to wonder if the board’s not cutting off its nose to spite its face as a reaction to the problems at Northern Guilford. As I sat there watching, I thought it might be easier if they just adopted Winston-Salem/Forsyth County’s open transfer policy.